A U.S. airstrike Thursday killed 13 insurgents in a volatile area west of Baghdad, the military said. Local officials said 45 civilians, including women and children, died in the attack.American forces launched the attack after intelligence showed suspected insurgents were assembled in two safe houses for foreign fighters northeast of Amiriyah, 25 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. Five militants were detained and a weapons cache including armor-piercing ammunition was found in an initial raid on a nearby target, the military said. That operation was followed by the airstrike on the two suspected safe houses in which the military said 13 insurgents died. Police and hospital officials in the area offered a conflicting account, saying the airstrike hit the village of Zaidan south of Abu Ghraib and flattened four houses, killing 45 people, including women, children and old people.... http://www.usatoday.com

The president of the Asian Development Bank has warned of increasing inequality across Asia. Haruhiko Kuroda also called on governments to do more to address what he called a new kind of poverty. At a conference in Vietnam, he told the BBC that China and India in particular were experiencing widening income gaps. Asia is home to many of the world's fastest growing economies - and that growth has lifted millions of people out of poverty. But the benefits of growth have not been spread equally. While many have become better off, many more remain left behind. Widening income gap Mr Kuroda said growth on its own was not enough to solve the continent's problems....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6342599.stm

The weather anomaly El Nino is weakening but the outlook beyond May is cloudy, according to a monthly report by the U.S. Climate Prediction Center released Thursday.The report by CPC, an office under the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said, "Trends in surface and subsurface ocean temperatures indicate that the warm episode (El Nino) is weakening." It added, "There is considerable uncertainty in the forecasts for periods after May 2007." El Nino is an abnormal warming of waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Meaning 'little boy' in Spanish, the phrase has religious connotations in many countries with a Spanish heritage because it refers to the Christ child. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2859760

Officials from the rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, have reported progress in crisis talks in the Saudi city of Mecca. They say they have agreed to give key cabinet posts to independents, overcoming a major stumbling block. The factions are hoping to strengthen a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and reach agreement on the programme of a national unity government. Ministers have been named for finance and foreign ministries, officials say. Reports say the new foreign minister will be Ziad Abu Amr, a former culture minister in the Palestinian Authority. Salam Fayyad is expected to be finance minister in any unity government. He has held the post previously. There has been no agreement on who should head the crucial interior ministry, though the factions are said to have agreed in principle that it should be an independent figure....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6342913.stm

Iran's supreme leader said Thursday that if the United States were to attack Iran, the country would respond by striking U.S. interests all over the world — the latest sharp exchange in an escalating standoff between the two countries. The comments by Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came the same day that another top official, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Javad Zarif, warned in a column in The New York Times that efforts to isolate Iran would simply backfire on the United States, increasing sectarian tensions in the volatile Middle East, including Iraq. The United States and Iran have been in an increasingly tense standoff over Iran's nuclear program. The tensions have worsened recently because of U.S. allegations of Iranian influence in Iraq. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/08/world/main2447354.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2447354

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has rejected calls by his defence minister to halt excavations at a contentious Jerusalem holy site, Israeli media has reported. Amir Peretz urged Mr Olmert to stop the digging near the al-Aqsa mosque for fear it will antagonise the Arab world. Mr Olmert declined, saying the works were causing no harm, according to the Haaretz newspaper. The excavation has provoked outrage among Muslims, who say it could damage the foundations of the mosque. There have been widespread protests among Palestinians and the wider Muslim world since the excavations began on Tuesday. The work is a prelude to the construction of a new walkway leading to the compound containing the mosque - Islam's third holiest site. The compound is also revered by Jews as the site of their biblical temples. According to Haaretz, Mr Olmert rejected Mr Peretz's appeal to stop the excavations, about 60m (200ft) from the mosque....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6343281.stm